Painting in a World Transformed: How Modern Art Reflects Our Conflicting Responses to Science and Change

Product Description

This book shows how painting since the mid1800s has reflected Western societys mixed feelings about the transformations in our world produced by science and technology. Neither a chronicle of the development of modern art nor a history of the modern era, it instead discusses how artists have represented feelings and ideas about the technological changes of modern times. Some artists approach this task with an outward focus, representing the world they perceive. Others focus inward, choosing to represent their personal reactions to that world. The author examines both approaches to show how major art movements of the last two centuries are related to the largest-ever changes in human knowledge. An analysis of 28 works reveals perceptions of technological change as both blessing and curse. The result of this analysis is a fresh view of the major artworks of the past century and a half, along with intriguing insights into our own attitudes towards our world.

Customer Reviews:

Modern Art Demystified.......2006-09-19

You will learn about more than modern art from Libaw's new book!

If you would like to be able to relate art to the increasingly real, less religious world with its sexual mores, and would appreciate the ability to sort out Manet from Monet, Morisot from from Degas, and then the cubists from the abstract expressionists--and even why Kinkade is not entirely kitsch, you will enjoy Libaw's succinct method of dealing with each artist in short paragraphs often including one or two examples of their art for discussion.

The author demonstrates his erudition and his excellent research references can provide his readers a basis for further exploring artistic times, places and works that have aroused particular interest.

Delightfully insightful and engaging study of art and knowledge.......2006-06-09

I was extremely impressed with author William H. Libaw's ability to illustrate the peculiar relationship between art and science in an accessibly provocative way. He follows the development of artistic styles through the eras and uses the metaphor of a mirror to reflect art's evolutionary tendendency to imitate life and vice versa until eventually the relationship is cracked, confused, and ultimately irrevocably intertwined.

The many pictured examples peppered throughout the book make Mr. Libaw's observations particularly persuasive, and I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone looking for a unique and engaging perspective on the creative motivation behind the ever-changing world of art and how its curious relationship with scientific history will continue to be fascinating.

I am curious if Mr. Libaw has additional projects in the works because I look forward to reading more from this uniquely talented writer.

Strange Bedfellows.......2006-04-02

William Libaw's PAINTING IN A WORLD TRANSFORMED is a remarkable read. Libaw explores science and art, strange bedfellows alternately existing side by side and then at odds with each other. My one complaint is that the text is so engrossing and thought provoking that the black and white illustrations do not do the prose justice.

Sister Wendy Beckett's remarks about this book........2006-01-26

Sister Wendy Beckett just sent me (the book's author) some kind words about "Painting in a World Transformed." Sr Wendy, who is a prominent member of the art community, sent them in response to the book-copy that I mailed to her. I think viewers here will be interested in Sister Wendy's remarks, as she was the guide through some TV art-museum shows, and is the author of over a half-dozen books about art. Here are her words:

"It's a most interesting book. Your observations have a freshness that is very attractive. It should find wide readership and I rejoice for you."

MEANINGS OF PAINTINGS.......2006-01-05

William Libaw's book, "Painting in a World Transformed," gave me some attractive ideas to chew on. He notes that paintings are unlike prose writings in that they often don't provide meaningful explanations of their subject matter. Libaw is a retired engineer, as am I. We engineers work to avoid confusing ambiguity, so I was attracted to this book as an outsider with hopes of getting some clarity about modern art.
Libaw quotes what art-world insiders (artists and critics) have written about artworks, and then speculates to give fresh meaning for outsiders: Those art images show how artists have responded to scientific development and change with varieties of wonder and horror. He also shows that the meaning of a picture is often multiple and ambiguous. He notes that the "art community" is an elite with its own standards and jargon, which differ from those of the masses of people who prefer art with a "sensual and poetic quality" that often seems merely sentimental to those in the art-world. Libaw makes the case that, finally, it is up to us as individual viewers, to impart meaning to a picture.
One of Libaw's chapters, "The Meaning of Meaningless," is about Jackson Pollock. He explains that Pollock's drip paintings, which seem so empty of meaning to many of us, illustrate the scientific view (disputed by both religion and art) that there is no meaning, as such, in the objective world. Pollock's work, like that of many of his contemporary fellow artists, shows the view that, although science continues to expand our knowledge, it does not satisfy "the heartfelt human desire for a world with overall meaning." Although I believe that there is no divine purpose in life, I find lots of meaning by constructing things and by maintaining human relations. As for Pollock, I enjoy his fierce drippings regardless of whatever Pollock himself had in mind.
This book is well worth the read for art-world outsiders seeking feelings and meaning in modern art.

Book Description

Updated to cover Flash MX, the newest version of Macromedia Flash, ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition is the one book no serious Flash developer should be without. ActionScript is Macromedia's programming language for Flash MX, the popular authoring tool for creating rich internet applications and animations for the Web. With Macromedia's new focus on application development, ActionScript now includes a direct drawing API, loading of external MP3 and JPG files, improved sound control, an extensive set of text formatting tools, complete support for component development using movie clip subclasses, local data storage, accessibility features, and much more. And ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide is the most complete, up-to-date reference available for the latest version of this language. Author Colin Moock, one of the most universally respected developers in the Flash community, has added hundreds of new code examples to show new Flash MX techniques in the real world: how to draw circles, save data to disk, convert arrays to onscreen tables, create reusable components, and preload variables, XML, and sounds. The book's language reference alone has nearly doubled from the first edition, with more than 250 new classes, objects, methods, and properties. You'll find exhaustive coverage of dozens of undocumented, under-documented, and mis-documented features. Along with the new material, Colin Moock has meticulously revised the entire text to conform to Flash MX best-coding practices. In particular, objected-oriented programming and the new event model get special attention in light of changes to Flash MX ActionScript. From sending data between two movies to creating getter/setter properties, the new edition of this book demystifies the often-confusing new features of Flash MX, giving developers easy access to its powerful new capabilities. ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide is structured so non-programmers can learn how to use ActionScript and programmers can take their skills to new heights. If you are in the market to really learn about the hows and whys of ActionScript, then this is the book for you.

Customer Reviews:

Cover ActionScript2 which will not run on Flash CS3.......2007-09-24

This book looks pretty good and the first chapter was very promising. However I must tell my experience so at least people don't waste time and get frustrated like I did.

The very first example of the book, the Multiple-Choice Quiz will NOT run on latest Flash CS3. It turns out that Flash CS3 (ActionScript3) decided to kill backwards compatibility and throw away the onRelease method for its buttons. So you get a bunch of compile errors. I managed to find out by myself that with AS3 you must use addEventListener to handle clicks to SimpleButton.

Anyways, the line:

totalOutput_txt.text = "Your final score is: " + totalCorrect + "/2.";

Is not compiling either with the error:

1120: Access of undefined property totalOutput_txt.

The totalOutput_txt is being created by "reflection" with the line:

createTextField("totalOutput_txt", 1, 150, 200, 200, 20);

But it looks like Flash CS3 does not like this. Again, another compatibility problem with CS3...

There goes my first star out. Now comes my second start out:

This book assumes that you DO KNOW how to play with FLASH, how to play with the timeline, etc. It does make a good effort to guide you through the steps to create the movie frames, etc, but I felt that I needed a flash designer near me to explain me what was going on.

Anyway, I was looking for a book like: Flash + AS for Java Programmers, but I guess I am asking too much. If anyone has a recommendation for me, please reply in this comment!

A difficult read but good for AS references.......2007-08-19

This book proved to be valuable for looking up new ways of implementing Action Script into my Flash projects. There were many examples of action script that can easily be found in the books index.

Glad I didn't throw it away.......2007-07-03

Was going through my books looking to get some space on the shelf for new ones and had this in my hand ready to go but for some reason couldn't do it. I hadn't done Flash/Flex (Flesh? Flax?) in a couple of years (moved mostly to C#) then recently I got a chance to do the quirky & kludgey beast of computing again with Flash8 and This Old Book Still Had The Goods.

If you don't own it, buy it. If you are thinking it's past its prime... buy it anyway :)

Oh, gotta say this: if you're thinking of buying into FMS... buy Wowza instead - it's more flexible and it's not priced as arrogantly as the ancient "Adobe" server.

The best.......2007-06-27

Hands down, the best ActionScript book in my library. Good for building a solid understanding of AS, but definitely not for someone looking for a few quick tricks, effects or tutorials.

A good book for coders, but designers will probably want something far less intense.

Best ActionScript foundation.......2007-06-21

It is a book that directly is recommendable for whatever it wants to program with ActionScript.

It is not necessary to enter the details of the book because everything is recommendable.

All the proportionate examples are practical and functional.

The author is a recognized programmer of ActionScript and has the Web www.moock.org.

It is necessary to consider that includes neither the components nor classes MX.

To be a programmer it is necessary to know how everything what the book author explains.

Directly recommendable, whatever the direction that is wanted to give later to the programming with ActionScript.

Next to this book also it is recommendable "Essential ActionScript 2.0" of he same author.

Average customer rating:

Definitive Guide is Excellent!
Good ActionScript reference book
Not suitable for experienced programmers
Superb
best buy ever

ActionScript : The Definitive Guide
Colin Moock
Manufacturer: O'Reilly
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1565928520

Amazon.com

Macromedia Flash is the obvious choice for delivering multimedia over the Web. At the heart of Flash's power is ActionScript, the product's powerful object-oriented scripting language. ActionScript is based on JavaScript, making it easy for Web developers new to Flash to get up to speed. ActionScript: The Definitive Guide is a tutorial and reference to ActionScript that meets the needs of both new Flash developers learning the language and experienced coders who need a daily reference.

Author Colin Moock starts off with a primer to Flash terminology and a quick example application--an interactive quiz. Following that, the book quickly gets down to ActionScript nuts and bolts. The first part covers the basics of the language, such as operators, variable scope, and conditional logic, in a traditional presentation. A few lines of example code illustrate each concept.

Critical topics like arrays, movie clips, and object-oriented programming are covered well at the detail level, though a more extensive example application would really have come in handy to illustrate the big picture. The back of the book contains an excellent reference to the ActionScript language, complete with inline example code. ActionScript is an important tool to master, and ActionScript: The Definitive Guide is a fine means to that end. --Stephen W. Plain

Book Description

Given its ability to deliver high-impact experiences even over low-bandwidth connections, Flash has become the de facto standard for hundreds of thousands of multimedia web developers worldwide.

Flash 5 now includes a new full-fledged programming language called "ActionScript" for controlling animation and multimedia. It's a quantum leap from the bare-bones "Actions" supported in Flash 4, andActionScript: The Definitive Guide is the first book dedicated entirely to documenting and demonstrating this new language.

ActionScript includes all fundamental programming constructs (variables, loops, conditionals, functions, etc.), and is inextricably fused with Flash's authoring behaviors and animation timelines. Because ActionScript is based heavily on the ECMAScript Language Specification (ECMA-262) and is syntactically nearly identical to JavaScript, Macromedia expects thousands of existing JavaScript programmers to migrate to ActionScript.

This book is divided into three sections.

"ActionScript Fundamentals" introduces both programmers and non-programmers to the new language by first describing fundamental programming concepts and then delineating in detail the components, syntax, and usage of ActionScript.
"Applied ActionScript Code Depot" shows you how to use common applications, such as processing online forms.
"Language Reference" is a concise and detailed reference that makes all ActionScript globals, properties, and objects, including extensive implementation samples, easy to find quickly.

Code samples are also available from the "Code Depot" on the author's web site devoted to Flash developers.

Topics covered in this book include:

Step-by-step tutorials of the most common ActionScript behaviors
Object-oriented programming in Flash
Intelligent interface development
Server communication
Dynamic content generation
Password protection
String handling
Message boards
Basic physics
Games

ActionScript: The Definitive Guide is structured so both programmers and non-programmers can learn how to use ActionScript. This book will take you well beyond simple Flash animations so you can create your own enhanced Flash-driven sites.

Customer Reviews:

Definitive Guide is Excellent!.......2006-03-15

The Definitive Guide to Actionscript by Colin Moock is a must have for anyone serious about Actionscript. Moock explains object oriented programming with ease. There are many samples and examples making this book easily accessible to a wide range of programmatic abilities. This book is a great learning resource and also serves as a reference for developers.

Good ActionScript reference book.......2003-05-31

It's all good... lot's of info, examples, details, etc etc...
I do have to comment though that everything you find in this book is EASILY found and sometimes in a way more deep and detailed manner in the Macromedia Flash Help section and in www.macromedia.com Flash support section... I would not consider this an essential book even though one feels secure to have it close...

Not suitable for experienced programmers.......2003-02-13

Nice book, found it pretty pleasant at first, but it was too easy to digest (six, seven hours and you can toss it over your shoulder). The real answers I need (mostly dealing with movie clip behaviours) are only vaguely explained or absent and I found the book more of a frustration than otherwise from about 1 week onwards.

Having said this, there doesn't appear to be any other title for Flash that caters to those whose programming knowledge exceeds their experience as a graphical design user.

Superb.......2002-11-10

Finally, an actionscript guide that is superb in its production! My hat is off to Colin and Gary for this detail-oriented volume that has cleared the smoke out of my head and has made a programmer out of an artist.

Bravo!!!

best buy ever.......2002-11-07

i dont need to say more, I even pre orderd the second edition allready

Book Description

You think you know satire. You’ve seen Jon Stewart, you’ve read Mad magazine. But you’ve never encountered anything like “Bob” and the Church of the SubGenius. The SubGenii have reached the limits of satire and pressed further, and in doing so have created a brand of satire that curtails its own absurdity and heightens our awareness of the world we live in. The SubGenii have never been as relevant as they are today.
Fundamentalist religion in the extreme, there are no limits to "Bob's" influence. In Revelation X we get answers to difficult questions: We learn the 10,001 Essences of “Bob” and He tells of His Very Own Conspiracy. Revealed for the first time are the Lost Gospels, the Epistles, the history of Mondo Connie, and a detailed description of “Bob’s” Heaven and Hell. Also included are the 273 Damnable, Venial, Black, White, Deadly, Menial and Trivial Sins, which include Buffalo Frenching (#4), Luck Listening (#40), Wedbetting (#76), and Reading judgmental lists of so-called “sins” (#273).

Customer Reviews:

Sequels are never as good..........2007-10-04

SubGenius was much better. RevX seems a little too "let's capitalize on the success and do another book," which runs completely contrary to Bob's teachings on the importance of slack.

2nd best book of all time!.......2007-04-01

Excepting the Book of the Subgenius, this is the greatest work of man (perhaps even better and definitely more entertaining than "The" book). The book offers insight and befuddelment to the true meanings of the Church of the Subgenius. The many holy and blasphemous essays are interspersed with beautiful and shocking artwork by members of this unique UFO sex-[...] cult. It is definitely a must-buy. If you already own a copy you should definitely buy another (they make great coasters, too).

Revelation X : The 'Bob'Apocryphon : Hidden Teachings and Deuterocanonical Texts of J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs

Average customer rating:

Most excellent read
You Need This Book. NOW
Bob IS Slack!
YEEEEEAAAAAAAARRRRRRGH! (again!)
Let me say first

Revelation X : The 'Bob'Apocryphon : Hidden Teachings and Deuterocanonical Texts of J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs
The SubGenius Foundation , J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs , Rev. Ivan Stang , and Paul Mavrides
Manufacturer: Fireside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0671770063

Amazon.com

For those who didn't get enough "Bob" out of the original Book of the SubGenius, Revelation X provides more of the same. If anything, this book is more pointed and trenchant than its predecessor. Having watched as hundreds of zinesters, graffiti artists, and Hollywood hipster wanna-bes ripped off their imagery and ideas, the SubGenii have gained even more insight into the wretchedness of the human need to follow rather than create. Encouraging this tendency in others while also making a buck off of it, the SubGenii have produced a well-aimed and painfully funny volume that parodies religion, the cult of cool, the notion of an underground, and the very idea of selling out.

Book Description

Its hour come round at last: the prophesied do-it-yourself end times religion for swinging mutants and terminal abnormals! Eternal Salvation- or triple your money back. Beyond science, reason, and orgasm. Instant instructions for those who follow no master! Scarier than the Old Testament and Scientology put together! More needlessly complicated than the Qabbalah! More vague and ambiguous than the I Ching or astrology! More sheer, brazen hogwash than even the Book of Mormon-- yet infinitely more accurate than Project Bluebook and the Warren Commission Report-- combined! Authorized to blaspheme by the gods themselves! Compatible with all major world religions and most weird fringe cults with a minimum of expensive interfaces or messy surgery.

Customer Reviews:

Most excellent read.......2007-05-12

This is one of the best books in the history of modern man. The pictures alone are enough to keep returning to it over and over and over. I found the tome very informative as it eloquently exposes the under-workings of the CON.
Any library, private or public, is incomplete without this remarkable book.

You Need This Book. NOW.......2005-09-18

Getting this book will be the difference in eternal salvation or going to work tomorrow. Get it now, before it's too late. This is your last warning, we're watching you.

Bob IS Slack!.......2004-12-16

If the Book of The Subgenius left your brain nearly distroyed. The sequal will finish the job!

If only Saddam had read this book! If he did, then the Iraqi's would be patrolling New York City right now!

"Bob" gives Jesus a wedgie!

"Bob" give Mohommad a "wet willie!"

"Bob" is the punch line to a joke that was never spoken.

"Bob" is the whoppie cushion at the Black Tie Dinner of reality!

"Bob" is the pie! "Bob" is the arm of Moe! "Bob" is the pie fight at the end of the Three Stooges Episode!

The end times are a'near! Get right with "Bob" now!

YEEEEEAAAAAAAARRRRRRGH! (again!).......2003-07-12

I bought this one too, now I'm even crazier!
Thanks again, "Bob"!

Let me say first.......2002-06-13

that I had to buy THREE copies of the first book, because it would 'disappear' when I lent it to friends. I certainly wore out the binding of each copy myself, because it was one of the funniest books I'd ever read hands down. Naturally, when the sequel, "Revelation X" hit the shelves, I needed to have it, even though I knew I'd already given enough money to these raving hucksters(I mean, I loved the Church-bought the mebership and all). While not as side splittingly funny as the first one, this is still light years ahead of any other humor books. Each SubGenius book is literally crammed with things to read and look at, artwork and rants and gag philosophy from embittered nerds all over the world apparently, all about the mythical figure of Bob Dobbs and his plan to save us from the maw of the Conspiracy that is perpetuated by so-called normal people to destroy noncomformity. Obviously, if you are the shy, intellectual type with a truckload of inner rage and a brain that no one appreciates or understands, then this is your bible. Women Subgenii take note: there's a chapter devoted just to you. Enjoy one of the last decades' coolest in-jokes.

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